Report

When creating my preproduction i did a range of research to learn and understand what is a thriller film and how are they presented. Firstly, i watched a 1991 thriller film named "Silence Of The Lambs". After watching the film i analysed and research information on what makes a good thriller film. I reviewed examples and conventions alongside analysing the structure and technical codes within thrillers. From my research i have found that thriller films contain a range of themes. This includes but not limiting: crime, romance, death, action, fear, violence, mind games and countless more. Most of these themes were included in the thriller "Silence Of The Lambs" and other thrillers which i have reviewed. In addition to this, thriller films contain a range of editing and technical codes. Whilst researching, i have found that a range of camera angles are key factors to provoke the audience in understanding the narrative. Close-ups of characters faces emphasis the character's emotion, making it more intense for the viewer. Likewise, a wide-shot could be used to display the atmosphere of a room making the audience feel more immersed in the film. Alongside this, the narrative and structure of thriller films are similar to one another. Each thriller film contains a antagonist in some way shape or form which makes chaos or disagreements, the protagonist is the hero of the film who defeats the antagonist and saves the day, likewise in "Silence Of The Lambs". Commonly, the structure of a thriller film includes a first conflict with the protagonists and antagonist which then later on follows a main conflict which brings the film to an end.

           "Silence Of The Lamb"

"The Figure"

I have watched a range of other films and TV series, these media text has influenced and informed my preproduction storyboard. From watching the TV series "The Walking Dead" i have learnt some key features of lighting and sound effects. Throughout this series, lighting is used to create the mood and atmosphere, making it more immersive. I have chosen to mainly have moody lighting in my storyboard to make it look more mysterious and appealing to my audience. Likewise, the choice of camera angles in "The Walking Dead" has informed me to use certain music in particular scenarios. Using slow and quite music in the background creates tension which makes the audience on edge about what is going to happen next. Alongside this, the comedy TV series "Community" uses a certain  mise-en-scène. I have used mise-en-scène to build narrative, my storyboard includes certain props to form a appealing story line. In the fantasy world of the TV series "Game Of Thrones" a range of editing is used to also create tension and narrative. From this series i have learnt how to effectively use a fade between scenes to represent time going by, and i have been informed on how to successfully use cuts between scenes.

My thriller film's target audience is young male/female teenagers aged 12+ and people who are interested in thriller films. Targeting a thriller film at this audience can come with a range of factors which had to come in consideration when designing my thriller film's poster and DVD cover. For example, most teenager targeted films have streamlined and easy to follow/understand narratives. But on the other hand making it too simplistic can cause difficulties, it could make them feel like its insulting their intelligence or it could just cause them to be uninterested. To resolve this there needs to be a balance, to successfully appeal to my target audience. Alongside this, teenagers appeal to a protagonist who is the same age as them, so that they can relate. That's why the main image of the DVD cover and poster are of a female teenager. When developing my film, i needed to consider suitable rude/offensive language and violence so that the film is still interesting and intriguing to the audience. After taken all of this into consideration my film must connote to the themes of violence, mystery, death and paranoia to efficiently attract my target audience.

"The Figure"

"The Hole"

"Red Riding Hood"

My production which is a DVD cover and poster of a thriller-horror hybrid film is titled "The Figure", my production has a range of strengths and weaknesses. Firstly, a strength of my poster takes advantage of technical codes like lighting. My main image is powerful and eye catching, through the use of it's piecing choice of colours of black and red, these colours suit my thriller theme. The red represents blood and violence and the black represents death and mystery. In addition to this, another strength of the main image is that it is bold, making it stand out from everything else on the poster. I used this choice of colours because of the many other thriller films which used this colour scheme, such as the film "Red Riding Hood". As shown in the "Red Riding Hood" poster, the colours of black and red is effectively used to suit the thriller theme. This poster influenced my poster design, the idea of using this type of colour scheme and layout is very appealing to my target audience. Likewise in the poster "The Hole" it uses dark colours to make the main image stand out. In addition to this, the choice of both of these posters having a main character displayed as the main image is another factor which i have used in my poster. The burst of colour also used in the film poster "The Hole" suits the usual conventions of a thriller, but meanwhile it still uses darkness to emphasise the main image.

"Dead Silence"

In addition to this, the theory "Levi-Strauss" of binary oppositions made me notice the opposition of villain VS hero is a often theme used in most thriller films. My film's poster has elements of this theory, alongside themes of paranoia and mystery.

Furthermore, my title was inspired by other DVD posters, especially the poster "Dead Silence". The choice of the faded and mysterious font emphasises the thriller theme and appeal to the target audience. My thriller film  took this into consideration, i used a worn and corrupted look with my title, this style perfectly suits the thriller theme and also looks creepy, mysterious and compelling which appeals to my target audience. Likewise, my choice of font used in my text was influenced by "Dead Silence"'s title, the blurred font connotes confusion and mystery. Furthermore, i decided to design my main character within the shadows and mist to suit the titles name, this connotes the feeling that the character is being watched or stalked. On top of this, the placement of the title is regarded from the "Dead Silence" title, both my and the "Dead Silence"'s title is placed clearly but both of them are damaged which suits the horror-thriller theme. Furthermore, the damaged/eroded title represents the idea of conflict or violence and the colour scheme of red and splatters of blackness illustrates death and danger. 

On my DVD cover i took advantage of including an review and star rating to illustrate to the audience the type of film it really is. Likewise i used reviews and star ratings on my poster to intrigue the audience and make them curious.
In addition to this, the reviews are from trustworthy sources which suit my target audience age range. This idea was instructed by the poster previously, "The Hole".

Although my DVD cover and poster have identical main images, they both display a young teenager which suits my target audience, making them able to relate. But both images are unique and different, the poster presents the main protagonist with elements of evil and a hint of death or violence. But on the other hand the DVD cover makes use of lighter colours which represent are more protagonist feeling to the audience but with a twist of mystery. These conventions was from the range of colours used throughout the posters previously viewed. Both of the deathless stares from the poster and DVD cover connotes the themes of a horror-thriller.

For my poster and DVD cover i included a tagline of "The shadows are watching" this tagline further resembles the thriller and paranoia theme. This was inspired by the "Moonlight" poster, its tagline is "This is the story of a lifetime", its tagline is more mysterious and intriguing, this shows that my tagline could use some improvement. In addition to this, the font and placement of the "Moonlight" tagline is small and doesn't draw your eye from the main image. My tagline for my poster stands out and draws the audiences attention, this is a weakness which could use improvements. Likewise my DVD's tagline is more hidden but it does still stand out through the use of its white font.

My poster also includes social media coverage through the use of the twitter, Facebook and Snapchat icons and hashtags along the bottom of the poster. These websites help audiences follow the film and find further information about it. This suits my target audience especially the Snapchat hashtag appeals to the teenage audience. Furthermore, i included the text "Coming soon" to make the audience create hype on the release of the film, and the audience could use the social media hashtags to follow updates,

With reference to your own detailed examples explore what affects how an audience may respond to a media text.

The target audience of the  TV series "The Walking Dead" are teenagers/young adults, aged 16+ who are interested in action and violence in a show. Someone who isn't the target audience may not decode the show correctly, so the action and violence may seem inappropriate to them. unlike people aged 16+ because they are able to decode the show and understand what is happening in the show. In addition to this, language and mode of address will seem alien and wrong to other audiences. For example, an older male may not understand the colloquial language used throughout "The Walking Dead", but teenagers will understand the choice of lexis. However, technical codes are also used to position the audience in an appropriate angle to particularly present a scene. For example, first person is to show a character's point of view, making the audience experience what the character is experiencing. On top of this, the choice of music will make audiences react differently.  

On the other hand, "The Walking Dead" contains a substantially large amount of blood and gore, particularly  in season 7 episode 1 were two main characters were slaughtered in front of their own friends. A audience who has a cultural belief of non-violence may respond negatively to this episode, making them not decode the show correctly to what he producer coded it about.

Likewise, in the comedy TV series "Community" the target audience is teenagers, the show appeals to their audience through the use of the theory personal identity. This theory will make the audience gain pleasure because they can relate to the show. In addition to this, the show can be used for social interaction, so that the audience can use the narrative of the series as experience in their own lives. But if a different audience watches the show, they may not decode it in the same way as the teenagers; causing confusion and misunderstanding. In addition to this, other viewers may be negotiated readers who only interprets some of the show. Through the use of the gratification theory of: entertainment and diversion, the target audience consumes the show to escape from pressures of everyday life.

Furthermore, culture/ethnicity groups may find some of the humor in "Community" offensive because they are oppositional readers who do not agree with the ideology of the content. Likewise, age differences can cause them to not decode the show correctly. And the use of minor language and sexual content can make the older generation feel uncomfortable.

In the movie "Doctor Strange" it guides the audience through a confusion and complicated fantasy world, the movie's target audience is 12+ so it contains no contain which is too graphic or rude. Although it has a young target audience, older people may not understand or interpret the movie to what the producers hoped for. For example a 63 year old man may not understand the narrative correctly. Likewise different cultures can cause people oppositional reading where they do no agree with the ideology of the movie.